Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Luik———

“So what’s the purpose of this?” The posh-feeling if somewhat plain man asked as everyone sat down. He has an air of professionalism to him despite being someone I’ve never met before. Meanwhile, this woman next to me…

“We’re all kindred spirits here, what’s the tone for?” She said with a somewhat unsettling smile. Her messy dark blue hair that is in a shape reminiscent of a Christmas tree makes her look a bit out there when you factor in her somewhat odd tone.

“Get to the point. I doubt someone of your caliber would call up two random people on a whim.” The man said, getting an inkling as to what this woman is capable of. In this time period where everyone became quite weary of each other, it’s pretty noticeable when someone started chatting up with random strangers.

“Oh. It’s not on a whim, I assure you.” She said while adjusting her dark blue tie. “I feel pretty bored, so I’m looking to entertain myself to see how the new age warriors are going to hold up.”

“Looking for a fight?” The man asked with his eyes squinted, finding it hard to believe that that is the only reason.

“Exactly! I mean. You came all this way, don’t you want a spectacular experience outside of stuffing yourself full like a pig? I know I don’t want that.” She said with a smile. “Come on. It’ll be worth both of your time. I know basically no one gets anyone from the olden days to guide them. They just dump a ton of mana into the atmosphere and leave it at that, can you believe it? No pointers, no nothing!”

“...What?” I said in confusion since she said like she knew what the cause of the Eclipse was.

“Yeah. That’s fair. I guess they also cure all the mana-jammed folks. That’s pretty important.” She said, completely missing the point I made with my bewildered tone. “Anyway. I think you two would like to see what an expert can do. That’s why I’m asking for you two to come along. A little birdie told me you use the same type of weapon as me, so that’s a good start.”

She then pulled out a non-curved Japanese blade, the type that I do in fact used.

“Is that really enough connection to bring us together?” The man asked skeptically.

“Just go along with her. She had been pretty lonely as of late.” Suddenly a fox woman walked into view. Her name is Navi, if memory serves.

“You… You’re a weird one as well. Can you not interrupt me? Pretty please.” She said, clearly displeased by the katana-wielding fox woman barging into the conversation.

“I’d imagine that they need someone with credibility to convince them. Last I check, you haven’t really interacted with the outside world for ages.” Navi argued back. “…By the way. If she was here, would you have dragged Fern here as well?”

“She’d probably cut my arms off before I could finish my sentence, so nah. Besides, she has plenty of talent to coast off on. She’d be fine without my interference.” The blue one casually said. I don’t even know who that is.

“I see… Anyway, even if her vibes are off, her skill is the real deal, so you two might as well go along.” Navi said before walking away… She seems to be wandering around alone, from the looks of it.

“...So. What do you think? Got an expert’s approval and all.” She said with two thumbs up.

“...Fine. You piqued my interest. So what do we do?” That man answered.

“Same with me.” It’s hard to shake that this should be quite an enlightening encounter, for better or worse. It is true that it’s hard to find someone with a similar skillset to compare against. The type of fighters are all over the place from some not using any weapons at all or completely focus on spell casting. Direct comparison is rare.

“Good! It looks like the middle arena isn’t used right now. So let’s go and call dibs.” She said before walking to the middle of the venue with the two of us following close behind. “Alright, put your stuff over there and let’s get this started.”

*Zoom*

Without much indication. We were suddenly transported into the fighting arena. Despite a good chunk of the stadium being used to place down a bunch of tables and food, the arena is still massive.

Both the man and I are on one side of the arena while she is on the other side, indicating that we’re supposed to fight her two-to-one.

There are also our weapons lying on the ground, which share the same shape as hers and what I am already used to. A straight katana, or a chokuto, to be more specific.

As for the simulated environment… It looks like an old school town when modernization is only just starting out. Certainly a weird scenery to go on, but perhaps this is a hint to something as well?

“Alright! Show me what you two are capable of. Try to survive this first hit, okay?” She said as she placed her right hand on top of her blade’s handle, the weapon still in its sheath.

I feel immense pressure emanating from her. This sensation is making my skin crawl, and we haven’t even started yet-!

**Jump** *SLASH* *CRUMBLE*

Both of us quickly jumped up before she unsheathed her blade and performed a horizontal swing with so much force that it would’ve most likely cut both of us in half if we didn’t anticipate the attack coming. The buildings behind us collapsed in seconds, which validated the bad feeling we both have.

“Good. I would’ve been quite disappointed if both of you couldn’t manage that much.” The woman on the opposite side said. That attack could’ve killed us and that’s what she said!? “Come on now. Make sure to fight back.”

*Dash* *Clash* *Parry* *Block* *Evade*

She ran towards us and started attacking both of us with such an absurd speed it feels like she’s duplicating. Both of us are under attack and we need to keep our distance. Each strike I tried to stop had such a great weight to it, trying to block or parry it would leave my arms sore and hard to move. The gap in power is so great that if this guy isn’t roped in as well I would’ve been overwhelmed already. We both have to share the burden of fighting her off.

*Clash* *Clang* *Parry*

I know there was a clear gap in strength even before the fight had started, but this is still merely the opening act. Can we really keep up the pace as she changes her approach?

*Swing* *Slide* *Parry*

I slide away and dodge the incoming attack as my teammate rushes in for a clean hit, only for her to turn around to quickly parry the incoming attack.

*Crackle* *Clash*

My eyes widened as my blade clashed with hers and quickly bounced back. She looked at me with a smirk as if completely aware of what I was trying.

*Swing* **Leap**

She suddenly does a wide swing that would’ve hit both of us, causing us two to quickly jump away and not leave any room for being hit.

“Ultrasonic cutter. You two heard about it, right?” She suddenly asked. I know why that specific topic came up, but…

“What about it?” The man next to me asked.

“It’s not exactly a concept that is talked about much, but it sounds quite simple, isn’t it? Enhanced cutting power via vibration. It uses surprisingly little mana to get going, though that particular enchantment can’t really be stacked with most without causing weird effects, and the concentration needed means you probably couldn’t try stacking it anyway.” She started talking, explaining the usage of the technique in more detail. “Well. The important part is how deadly it can be. It can shred through something way above its class pretty easily, but one wrong move and your blade will be shattered into pieces. I see that both of you aren’t using it like a crutch.”

“I call it high frequency, personally speaking.” I said as I changed my fighting stance.

“Call it whatever you like. There’s no strict term for it.” She said while shrugging her shoulders. “It obviously works best with a weapon with a long sharp edge like a sword, but I think I said enough. We’re barely getting started.”

Seems like we’ll soon resume the battle. I need to make sure to not let my guard down for even a moment!

———Karra———

“...I know that such a technique exists. I wonder why they didn’t bother teaching about it.” I asked as both of us sat at the table near the fighting area.

“It’s probably considered too risky to try. Compared to the one esoteric ability they insist on teaching everyone, it just seems unnecessary. They want you guys to work on the fundamentals instead of fancy techniques.” Wiina, or Navi, said. “If they wanna learn something a bit more niche, they gotta do it themselves.”

“Okay, but why did they make us learn wavedash? Why that?” Isn’t that also pretty niche? What’s the point of us learning that? I heard some people were crying over it.

“Personal preference.” She bluntly answered. Really? So we could’ve learned about the ultrasonic thing if it was something they really like?

…So which game did they play that had one anyway? Obviously a fighting game, but which one? One of them is pretty notorious for it, if I remember right.

“...By the way, which one is harder to perform?” I asked as we continued watching the three of them duking it out.

“Wavedash.” She answered.

“Then why the hell did we learn that?” I said, starting to feel annoyed at how weird the thought process is.

“It is more applicable, to be fair. High frequency enchantment isn’t applicable to all fighting styles. Spell casters and martial artists can’t use it at all, for example.” She explained. Hmm… I guess that is a fair thing to say…

Meanwhile inside the arena, the one with dark blue hair is still dominating and controlling the pace of the fight with her superior strength and speed. All of them running around the fighting area, crashing into buildings, cutting them up, just running all over the place as the two try to keep up.

“Jeez. Can’t she hold back a little more?” I can’t help but say that, seeing how ruthless she seems.

“Give her a break. I’m pretty sure she is already holding back by a lot.” Wiina said. “The old guard are just way too much for anyone in this new era to handle. Even if someone from this age is very talented, the lack of experience will still create a vast gap.”

“So where does that leave you?” I asked, since she can’t really count herself among them.

“Nowhere, more or less.” She casually said, not giving out any specific emotion. It’s hard to read her when she’s a you-know-what. “They won’t last another minute at this rate. The lesson is going to be over real quick.”

Just what in the world happened in the ye olden days for someone to be so strong and uncompromising? It feels like I miss out on a lot of history here.

“By the way, who is she anyway?” I asked. I’ve never seen her around this part, for one.

“An Ahdeid from… surprisingly not too long ago, relatively speaking. She’s around the start of modernization.” Ah. That’ll explain the aesthetic she was going for with the battlefield…

“So what even is the oldest Ahdeid anyway?” I said while scratching my head.

“I’m afraid that’s a spoiler. You should ask me that later.” She said with a teasing tone. Great. More secrets.

Inside the battle itself those two are battered and tired, barely even able to stand, let alone attack. Neither of them have accrued a lot of injuries at the very least, there is some dignity intact.

I’d imagine that for those two, the fight probably feels a few times faster. When you’re in the zone the perception of time can drastically change. Maybe they figured something out even in the few short minutes the fight took.